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We take a peak inside the new tunnel
WITH the final part of the tunnel in place on the river bed of the Tyne, the tunnel should be completed in one more year.
To see how work is coming along, The Gazette went to see at close hand the excavations for the 'cut and cover' tunnel in Jarrow.
Wanting to see what it was like on the 'mud face', Gazette photographer Kate Wood and myself were kitted out in the obligatory steel toe-capped boots, hard hat and fluorescent jacket and taken 20m underground into the half mile-long trench leading from the tunnels' entrances to the river.
This was dug using the aforementioned 'cut and cover' method, which is much quicker than conventional tunneling.
It entails digging a trench then constructing underground 'diaphragm walls' along its length to prevent the excavation from collapsing in on itself.
The space between the walls is then excavated, and the floor slabs poured. Finally the 'roof' sections are put on, and the whole thing covered over with earth.
Romain Cavelle, the technical department co-ordinator for Bouygues Travaux Publics (BTB) which is the main constructor, said: "As an engineer you see a lot of very different techniques that are being carried out on the site.
"It means going from one technical aspect to another and you are also on conditions you don't see anywhere else."
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Weather for South Shields
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: West
